Clodagh Finn: How Oonah Keogh made history on the Dublin Stock Exchange in 1925

A century after she broke into an all-male world, Oonah Keogh’s quiet revolution on the trading floor is remembered

Oonah Keogh and her husband Bayan Giltsoff outside their home in Kilquade, Co Wicklow. She had the private education, the connections and the financial wherewithal to make it as a stock broker. Picture: Katushka Giltsoff

Exactly 100 years ago tomorrow, 22-year-old Oonah Keogh’s application to the Dublin Stock Exchange was accepted after a fevered, three-week debate.

Little wonder she reported feeling “sick with fright” when she walked onto the market floor three weeks later, becoming the first female stockbroker in Ireland and in many parts of the world. It was 1973 before London Stock Exchange admitted its first woman.